Liberals, Muslems, and Americans

Liberals feel that we should respect Muslims. We are conflicted over this. Anyone that believes in women's rights should have a difficult time respecting the Muslim religion. In their heart of hearts Muslims have little respect for Christians or Jews. Yet they want the respect they cannot give back. They know that they are right and everyone that is not a Muslim is unclean. I don't know why they choose a location near the ruin of the Twin Towers to build a Mosque unless it is to create controversy. Bottom line they have no respect for the people that died there. I do want peace and for them to have the right to live the way they want...let us do the same. I do not approve of the wars this country has gotten involved in. I felt so bad for the women and girls in Afganastan and at first it may have seemed that we should do something. Still it wasn't our job to fix things. It is not our job to fix the wrongs in this world.

Can we separate the Muslim from his beliefs? Can we respect the person while questioning the religion? Can we expect our people to welcome a Mosque near the Tower site when we know that the principles of that religion brought the towers down? We expect our people to take on the guilt of things gone wrong. In the same way the Muslims should have some respect and understanding when it comes to building their Mosque near the twin tower site. Oh! I forgot they really don't have any respect for us as Americans, or Christians, or Jews, or just as people.

On Whoopie and O'Reilly...they have different ideas about the tower location. I remember when Whoopie defended Vick on his involvement with the pit bull fighting. So what she thinks has no credibility for me. I used to like her.

So while as an American I will respect the right of the Muslim people in this country to have their beliefs and their way of life, I cannot approve of the way they treat their women and girls.

Mission Trails with Jean

A couple of weeks ago we went to Mission Trails Park to walk and take photos. There is a small lake named Kumeyaay after the Native Americans that lived in this area. It is a great place for taking pictures. Was having computer problems and finally today worked them out. I did have my laptop to use but it doesn't have any phtoto editing programs. So now can process my photos. Here are some that I took.

A Bottomless Pit

The state needs money. So the state of Californina is going to sell the Del Mar Fair grounds, among other things. Will this be the end of our county fair? The fair has been held in Del Mar since 1936 though the tradition of our county fair goes back to 1880. The fair grounds were chosen by Arnold because of their value. Much of the value is location. And good management has made the grounds profitable. It doesn't run on tax money.

Still, once the fair grounds become private property will profits from the current use be enough that a buyer can afford the property taxes and fees connected with running a private enterprise, while getting the payment price back in a reasonable time? If not, the location of the land would make it necessary to find a more profitable use for the property. That means development.

If the fair grounds are turned into condos it will break my heart and same for lots of us who remember a lifetime of good times at the fair and the Del Mar races.

Why should we loose our fair so the state can balance their budget? This is just the beginning. What will they sell after they take away all our parks?

 

I'm very glad that I didn't vote for Arnold!!! And I hope this isn't a scam for some people to get their hands on the fair grounds...if it is I hope they spend their old age in prison.

Update: The state is selling the fair grounds and the race track to the city of Del Mar for $120 million. Hopefully this deal will save the fair for future generations.

Another Update: The Del Mar fairgrounds and race track not going to be sold to the city of Del Mar just yet...if ever. Too many people not happy with the deal. Some say price is too low. Yet the state wants taxpayers to pay for what the people already own. The people that run the fairgrounds are angry. They feel left out. But what if the grounds are just sold for condos...won't they be out then anyway?

A little B&C that I posted on Facebook...

I like the heat! Last week we had 100 plus days and everyone complained. Not me. Then Thursday we had the thunder storm from hell and my favorite palm tree was hit by lightening. I saw it happen too...called 911 for the fire department. Then yesterday it got cold enough to hunt up some socks. Now it is raining. Summer really is over. I hate cold feet!

Stormy Day and Other Things

For the last week have been using my laptop. My big computer is sick...it won't load windows though it tries very hard to do so...So right now can not download my photos,..

Thursday we had a big thunder and lightening storm. While I was sitting on my porch watching it all, a bolt of lightening hit my tallest palm tree.  I've taken many photos of that tree but didn't take photos of it on fire. I was too busy trying to get the fire department to come put out the fire and also to convincing my son David to stay out of the yard. Then I had to tell a couple of neighbors to go home. All I need is to see someone actually get hit by lightening,

Anyway I love that tree. E.R. is away on a trip to IL so he will probably take the tree down when he gets back.

Friday a friend Jean and I went to Misson Trails to take photos. Lots of walking and I haven't been doing enough walking these days and I felt it yesterday. I will get some of the photos posted whem I fix my computer problems.

My laptop was sitting unused since before my health problems last January. So was surprised to find my old Scrabble disk in the laptop drive. Spent a lot of time looking for the game disk, but my daughter had re arranged my room while I was in the hospital and packed up a lot of my stuff...

This Scrabble game was hi-tech once. Better than the computer Scrabble game that came before. This one has pretty graphics but has to change the rez to 256 colors to work and it looks dated for sure. But I love it. Sometimes old is better than new.

Windmill House

A third grade friend lived in the Windmill House. That was back in the late 1940s. I was invited to spend the night there by a girl named Kathleen. I remember the house very well. My mother took us to Washington State in March of 1949 and for some reason though we moved back to Lakeside I was never friends with Kathleen again.

I did not see the house again until many years later. In the early 1970s  my children's grade school class went to see the Native American grinding rocks that are on the property. Some of them  are very deep into the rocks.

The house is now surrounded by an RV park. The land was once part of a Mexican land grant and before that it was a Native American village. Los Coches creek crosses the property and there are springs near by. It was quite wonderful all those years ago before it was covered by trailers and RVs. The whole area should have become a real park.

A person can just drive in and see the windmill house. Jackie and I did that yesterday after our lunch at the Italian resturant near there. She was surprised as most people can live around here for years and not know the Windmill House exists. There is a sign that gives some of the history of the house. I had always thought it was much older than it is. It was built in 1925 and the windmill was built to generate electricity. I had always thought it was to pump water. Two of the owners of the house were listed but not my friend's family.



I remember that we had to leave the house and go out to a separate building to go to the bathroom and that seemed scary at night. Kids remember stuff like that.

Bird of Paradise

Taken with my Olympus E3 and an old Minolta Rokkor 50mm lens.



 

Quiet Morning

Up before sunrise this morning. A little piece of quiet to enjoy. School starts on Tuesday and that means a quick trip down the freeway and then a slower trip through a few red lights to her school. Had a cup of coffee in my hand by the time the sun came up in the clear sky. It will be another hot day...yesterday was a 100 plus.

I noticed the bird of paradise beginning to bloom so got the camera.

Looking forward to taking more photos...

Swimming

We didn't learn to swim as very young children growing up in east San Diego County. Life was different back then. Houses didn't have air conditioning and they didn't have swimming pools. At least we didn't know anyone that had these things. Our hills were covered in sage not miles and miles of track houses. During my very early years America was at war with Germany and Japan. We had blackouts. My family had the only telephone on our part of the road and there were two dairies, one up the road and one down the road, that needed to shut down their lights during a blackout. There would be the phone call and my great uncle would go to one dairy and my dad to the other. The first time it happened my dad was so excited he ran into a barbed wire fence on the way to tell them to shut off their lights. I remember when the war was over. My parents were divorced by then and my first stepfather loaded us up into the car and we drove to San Diego honking the horn while other people on the roads did that too. We were so excited though I don't think we fully understood what it meant that the war was over.

By the time I was six years old my mother's marriage was on the rocks. She took us to Washington state. Bob flew up and talked my mother into trying again. We drove back to California in my grandfather's brand new Kaiser automobile. The next summer the marriage really was over and Mama took us back up to Washington. This time for the whole summer.

There are a lot of lakes in Washington state and summer programs to teach children to swim. So my cousins, my sister, and I were taken to the lake and put into swimming class. The first thing we had to learn was to face float. I saw my sister and cousins quickly go on to the next phase, backfloating. I couldn't seem to get out of face floating. Finally I managed to float to the count of ten...I really think the instructor was tired of me and wanted to send me on to the next class. Back floating was a disaster. By then my sister and cousins were dog paddling. I tried to do everything right but I would only sink up to my nose and breath in water. I decided that I was never going to learn to swim.

A few years later my Dad and Stepmother took us, most weekends, to Mission Bay to picnic and swim . My dad got big inner tubes from his work and so I had a great time floating around on those tubes. Mission Bay was also a different place back then. Lots of space and only a few people.

By the time I was twenty, my mom, by then married to my last stepfather put in a swimming pool. Years go by and my sister and I were both married with children and often on weekends we would visit Mama with our children. My sister smoked back then and she would tread water and smoke. I would hang on to the side of the pool.

I joined a backyard swim class for moms. I learned to dive into the deep end of the pool and to glide face down accross the pool. I even learned to swim a few strokes. I had gained some weight by then and it was easier to float. However when the instructor had us tread water, I began to sink. She looked at me and as I was going under she grabbed me and pulled me up. She said I was doing everything right too!

So I decided I had heavy bones and I just wasn't ever going to float like most people do. Give me a floaty and I'm a happy camper.

Yesterday I had a bone density test. The test is for osteoporosis. My bones are fine. I sort of knew they would be but it is nice to have that confirmed.

Summer's Past Revisited

Jackie and I went to Summer's Past. I had the iced tea and she a cappuccino. I wandered around and took a few photos while she checked out the soap shop.

Then we drove west on Old 8 to the Italian resturant and had a lovely lunch. I got a small pizza and Jackie ordered bruschetta and we shared. I took this from the resturant parking lot. I liked the way the sun hit the flowers.

Sunlight on Water

Hailey in the pool, and I noticed the designs the sunlight was making on the water.

Another Photo from Saturday

This one needed a bit of Photoshopping...

A Wonderful Day

Sarah and her daughter Nancy were here today. Sarah lives in Hemet about an hour and a half drive north of here. We met at a great Mexican resturant, Marieta's in Santee, for lunch and then Nancy left Sarah with me while she went up to Barona were they had a room for the night. Sarah and I drove up to one of my favorite places, Summer's Past. We bought iced tea and sat for a little while. Then we were off around the grounds to take photos. If you have read my blog you have seen photos from Summer's Past. I bought the paper whites and the pink lady bulbs there too. It is a wonderful place for taking photos. I've always found something new to point my camera at each time I visit. Sarah loved the place. She loves taking photos too. I was a happy camper that I could share the place with her.

We saw this bird house as we walked the path into the grounds past the soap shop.

I love the weathered wood.

While we sat near the juice and coffee bar drinking our tea I saw the sun shining through and had to grab my camera.

You can hear the waterfalls from the lounge area and we walked over to see the stream. There are some small bridges to walk over the water too. I took this of the water fall. The shade makes it look like night.

Sarah visited the soap shop. They make soap with lovely smells and Sarah bought some of it. While she was in the soap shop I found these.

I'm not doing Photoshop as much as I used to but couldn't resist on this one photo. It has a part of a second photo of the same flower added. I once did a lot of photo editing on my rose photos many years ago...gosh it seems like yesterday but most of my rose photos were put together over ten years ago.

Reluctantly we left Summer's Past and headed for Lakeside. A quick drive through the park, because Sarah was getting a bit tired so we didn't get out to take photos. She wanted to see the swans but they are gone. Last year some idiot that works for the county decided that the lake should go dry and drained the water down until most of the birds left. I think that is when we lost the swans. Finally we did have some rain and the lake while not as full as it was does have most of the water back. The people in Lakeside were very angry but it is a county park and what we wanted didn't matter. For over twenty years the lake was dry. Rainy weather in 1978 flooded the area and the lake water came back. Most people don't remember the dry years and how lucky we are to have the lake. Back in the dry years the back half of the lake was a Little League Field. There were people upset that was lost, but there are trade offs in this life and most of us were happy to have the lake back.

Sunset

The news says another beautiful sunset this evening expected. I took this on Sunday evening.

Usually I don't see pretty sunsets. We live in an area of hills around us on three sides and the sky show is hidden by the hills. The view is down my driveway...the palms on each side of the drive were planted my my dad when he moved here in the late 1960s.

More Lilies

My mother grew pink lilies. She called them amaryllis, but they are Lycoris squamigera also called pink ladies or naked ladies. I got some bulbs when I managed the storage and enjoyed seeing them bloom every summer. Left them behind when we moved away. Last year found bulbs at a wonderful place near Alpine and waited a year to see them bloom. I'm a happy camper.

These are the red and white lilies. It was a surprise that this year there was a yellow lily blooming with them.

Yellow Lily

Last year I bought a bag of pretty two toned lily bulbs. I have them planted in two pots and have been looking forward to blooming again this year. What a surprise, this year one yellow lily bloomed. It is beautiful and hopefully the bulb will divide and I'll have more next year.

Will post photos of the red and white lilies when they bloom...which will be soon.

Awards and other things

Got the word that my operation was a success and I'm cancer free now. Yea! Now I can think about getting my other heart artery cleared out. Plan to wait until fall if that is all right with my doctors.

My keyboard quit a couple of days ago. There is a pop up on my desktop the lets me type letters using my mouse. So wasn't totally off the computer. I bought a kb yesterday. Not all that happy with it. I really liked the one I had but it was really old...a lot older than my computer.

Hailey got an award yesterday evening for her flower class...it is an ROP class...which means Regional Occupational Program...and is a state program run through the highschools to teach young people skills that can lead to careers in the work place. The Grossmont High School District held the award ceremony for ROP students district wide that were considered the best in their classes. There are 12 High Schools in the district. We met Hailey's teacher and she is a super nice person. She sat at our table. Hailey's class works on flower arrangements for outside projects like charity events and weddings and funerals too. That gives them more flowers to work with and experience with doing commercial work. They made the flower arrangements for the tables at the awards. She got to take home the flowers from our table...not the ones she did in class though.

Macro Photos

Hailey went swimming...

and I took out my camera...

Thinking about it...

Trying the slow way of getting all wet...

Back on the board...

Going for it.

It was a lovely spring day in So Cal. This is my favorite time of the year. In a couple of weeks I will be having an operation...nothing to do with my heart but very needed. It was scheduled for last month but put off because I'm taking blood thinners. Too soon to stop taking them the doctor said. I'm looking forward to being able to get into the pool myself. Maybe by June...

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter a little late...but hope everyone had a great day. We felt the earthquake from Mexico and the aftershock from Imperial California. I was sitting on the glider near the pool talking to Elizabeth and felt the earthquake as the glider started swinging sideways. Hailey came outside. We just laughed about the shaking. The news made a big thing out of it.

Early Saturday morning...a little after 2am a speeding driver took out a light poll near our house and we had no power for about ten hours. The poll was cut in half and if it hadn't hit a tree it would have landed on a house. Our part of the road was blocked off all morning but they let us drive through. No way to cook breakfast so a trip to Jack's for something to eat.

My daughter was stopped right after the accident. She was on her way home from work and was not too happy until they let her through. She got to hear all about the accident from the cops. Both tires on one side of the car were sheared off and one of them rolled down to our drive way. The car's driver ran off and so did his passenger. Hailey woke up an we sat around in the dark talking for a couple of hours.

Saturday about 10am Elizabeth and Hailey walked down our drive and talked to the electric company repair men and got some more information. They caught the passenger hiding in some bushes. He had a broken jaw. I did have a bit of computer withdrawl until the power came back on.

Borrego Springs

The flowers bloom every spring in the desert. This year because of the winter rains the flowers are everywhere. A lovely sight. We drove over yesterday morning and spent a few hours seeing and photographing them.

A little snow left on the top of the mountain.

I've photographed the metal animals before, but couldn't resist taking these.